Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Important Swiss article on the Directory Scams
Journalist Christian Bütikofer has done a great deal of research into the directory scam industry and Yesterday stopECG published an English translation of his latest article which came out in the Swiss Newspaper Tages Anzeiger
Here are added a few notes on the content of the article
Under the headline Systematic challenge of Court decisions it is noted that the guides use a ruse whereby they can continue to trade as long as condemnations are under appeal, of course such laws are there to protect us but with the scam guides it is standard fare to take appeals all the way to the highest court and to drag out the legal process. Thus the ECG’s fine and condemnation of September 2003 was not finally confirmed until April 2008
Similarly Construct Data appeared to agree before the Austrian court to cease demands for money against those who had signed the companies trick contracts, only to circumvent the agreement and continue to rake in money for another year. By the time Austrian law finally closed in on Construct Data an almost identical company had appeared in Mexico
In Switzerland Bütikofer has discovered that Novachannel were condemned in 2008 but that they simply appealed and continued to trade unabated. The appeals gave Novachannel time to do a mass mailout on behalf of its Med1web directory, then before the final police raids the disputed contracts were simply sold to a Portuguese company.
As well as the widely reported penalties against the ECG Bütikofer has uncovered the penalties against Novachannel in Switzerland and a whole string of fines in Italy which brings the total known fines incurred by the Ludenbach guides since 2003 to around 1,000,000 Euros. The actual fines are almost certainly dwarfed by the legal costs of appealing them, these figures give a window on how much money is at stake.
The article also exposes how Intercable Verlag sold its disputed contracts to a Hungarian company. Central European Advertising Kft. (CEA Kft) The ownership of the new outfit is hidden through a holding company called Central European Advertising LLc based in Delaware, USA.
Under the heading Mud attack against Seco The article draws together previously reported links through the pornography industry between the scam guides and the German company Eye-Net GmbH which hosts a forum used to defame anyone who dares to stand up to the guides. The posts that named Seco staff have been removed but a huge body of content remains on the forum, and the account used to defame Seco is still active
CEA.Kft appeared at the very end of 2008, it remained unnoticed until May 2009 when it purchased the disputed contracts of scam guide Intercable Veralg AG. These disputed contracts and the subsequent demands for money when people signed them in error had resulted in a criminal investigation against Intercable in Switzerland. Just over a month after unloading the contracts to CEA, Intercable was raided, staff arrested and the company put into liquidation.
In addition to the information in the article stopECG can reveal that an Intercable related company that was only recently established, VS Verlag Service is also in liquidation. This company had as one of its board members a former long-term employee of Intercable Veralg.
Prior to liquidation they were looking for personnel and wrote that their main customer was to be a publishing house in Hungary.
Below are some addresses for persons in dispute with CEA Kft, they're reproduced here because some of the Hungarian characters corrupt on the stopECG website. For full advice please visit stopECGs page on CEA Kft
Mayor of Budapest
Mr. Gábor Demszky Mayor
Városház u. 9-11, 1052,
Budapest,
HUNGARY
tel : +36 1 3271038
fax : + 36 1 3271809
Web: http://www.budapest.hu/
Contact person: Ms. Maria Tomanek
Office of International Relations
Office of International Relations,
H-1052 Budapest,
Varoshaz u.9-11.
Hungary
tel: +36 1 3271075/76
fax:+36 1 3271807/82
Email: TomanekM@Budapest.hu
General Inspectorate for Consumer Protection
General Inspectorate for Consumer Protection
(Fogyasztóvédelmi Fofelügyeloség)
1088 Budapest,
József krt. 6.
Hungary
Web: http://www.fvf.hu/
E-mail: fvf@fvf.hu
Hungarian Police
http://www.police.hu/
Here are added a few notes on the content of the article
Under the headline Systematic challenge of Court decisions it is noted that the guides use a ruse whereby they can continue to trade as long as condemnations are under appeal, of course such laws are there to protect us but with the scam guides it is standard fare to take appeals all the way to the highest court and to drag out the legal process. Thus the ECG’s fine and condemnation of September 2003 was not finally confirmed until April 2008
Similarly Construct Data appeared to agree before the Austrian court to cease demands for money against those who had signed the companies trick contracts, only to circumvent the agreement and continue to rake in money for another year. By the time Austrian law finally closed in on Construct Data an almost identical company had appeared in Mexico
In Switzerland Bütikofer has discovered that Novachannel were condemned in 2008 but that they simply appealed and continued to trade unabated. The appeals gave Novachannel time to do a mass mailout on behalf of its Med1web directory, then before the final police raids the disputed contracts were simply sold to a Portuguese company.
As well as the widely reported penalties against the ECG Bütikofer has uncovered the penalties against Novachannel in Switzerland and a whole string of fines in Italy which brings the total known fines incurred by the Ludenbach guides since 2003 to around 1,000,000 Euros. The actual fines are almost certainly dwarfed by the legal costs of appealing them, these figures give a window on how much money is at stake.
The article also exposes how Intercable Verlag sold its disputed contracts to a Hungarian company. Central European Advertising Kft. (CEA Kft) The ownership of the new outfit is hidden through a holding company called Central European Advertising LLc based in Delaware, USA.
Under the heading Mud attack against Seco The article draws together previously reported links through the pornography industry between the scam guides and the German company Eye-Net GmbH which hosts a forum used to defame anyone who dares to stand up to the guides. The posts that named Seco staff have been removed but a huge body of content remains on the forum, and the account used to defame Seco is still active
CEA.Kft appeared at the very end of 2008, it remained unnoticed until May 2009 when it purchased the disputed contracts of scam guide Intercable Veralg AG. These disputed contracts and the subsequent demands for money when people signed them in error had resulted in a criminal investigation against Intercable in Switzerland. Just over a month after unloading the contracts to CEA, Intercable was raided, staff arrested and the company put into liquidation.
In addition to the information in the article stopECG can reveal that an Intercable related company that was only recently established, VS Verlag Service is also in liquidation. This company had as one of its board members a former long-term employee of Intercable Veralg.
Prior to liquidation they were looking for personnel and wrote that their main customer was to be a publishing house in Hungary.
Below are some addresses for persons in dispute with CEA Kft, they're reproduced here because some of the Hungarian characters corrupt on the stopECG website. For full advice please visit stopECGs page on CEA Kft
Mayor of Budapest
Mr. Gábor Demszky Mayor
Városház u. 9-11, 1052,
Budapest,
HUNGARY
tel : +36 1 3271038
fax : + 36 1 3271809
Web: http://www.budapest.hu/
Contact person: Ms. Maria Tomanek
Office of International Relations
Office of International Relations,
H-1052 Budapest,
Varoshaz u.9-11.
Hungary
tel: +36 1 3271075/76
fax:+36 1 3271807/82
Email: TomanekM@Budapest.hu
General Inspectorate for Consumer Protection
General Inspectorate for Consumer Protection
(Fogyasztóvédelmi Fofelügyeloség)
1088 Budapest,
József krt. 6.
Hungary
Web: http://www.fvf.hu/
E-mail: fvf@fvf.hu
Hungarian Police
http://www.police.hu/
Labels: CEA Kft, Central European Advertising LLc, Christian Bütikofer, Eye-net GmbH, intercable Verlag AG, VS Verlag Service
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Intercable Verlag AG and Premium recovery AG in Liquidation
Today it has become apparent that the above companies are being wound up, such news is not formally announced but the status of these companies has changed in the Swiss company registers.
You can see the status of Intercable Verlag here and Premium Recovery Here
Although the page is in German you can see the names of the directors scored out and the Liquidators appointed at the end of the list. Some of the names associated with Intercable are men who have been involved with the scam guide industry for many years, but none of them has been around as long as the company itself. Below is a brief obituary for these 2 companies.
Intercable Verlag was the oldest guide in the group, it can be traced back as far as 30 years to the genesis if the scam guide industry in Hamburg. This liquidation will ring loud in the ears of Mienolf Ludenbach for it was back in Hamburg that he worked for Intercable and quite possibly there that he learned the trade he would in time turn into a global industry.
Years later he would buy the company that had once employed him and would move the base of operations to Switzerland. For many years Intercable continued to use the original method of sending salespeople to target companies these salespeople would dupe persons into signing contracts that they believed related to a free listing. The arrival of many former soviet bloc countries in the EU provided the perfect opportunity for Intercable, trick forms were mailed in huge numbers with wording that made it easy for recipients to confuse them with an offer relating to a Swiss fund to assist companies in the new EU member states. Add to that the fact that the forms were mailed in English and many recipients were bamboozled into signing. The Swiss Government was forced to issue at least one warning about this trick.
Not surprisingly when people were invoiced for their listings in Intercable's near worthless directory they refused to pay. Many banded together to expose the scam. In spite of all this Intercable then went to court to enforce the disputed contracts, not as the contracts stated, under Swiss law but in the counties where their victims lived. As the original contracts had been mailed in English Intercable conveniently provided translations to the courts with all the misleading aspects of the contract layout removed, the outcome was that they won some cases and were able to use these to bludgeon other victims into paying. Whereas most of the guides persuade less than 20% of their victims to actually pay Intercable was getting close to 100%.
After StopECG broke the news of the police raids last month it became a major story in the 2 worst affected nations, (the Czech Republic and Sovakia). On some Czech News bulletins it was the top story of the day! Video 1 Video 2
Alas Intercable has sold the disputed contracts and there have been some new attempts to enforce them; more on this tomorrow.
Premium Recovery was a newcomer, Established to take over the business formerly managed by Ovag international AG it appears that the sole purpose of the Premium Recovery was to terrorise victims of several scam guides into paying. Masquerading as a international Debt Collection agency it employed mainly foreign staff to harass guide victims in their own language. Staff were offered substantial bonuses for bringing in disputed debts and a no-holes-barred culture appeared to exist in how far they could go to intimidate people. As far as we know Premium Recovery never took anyone who refused to pay to court they but almost always threatened legal action, often looking up the names of local courthouses on the Internet and then naming them in letters and faxes.
In the pressure cooker atmosphere of Premiums offices it was not unusual for staff to become threatening and abusive on the phone. Few will rue the demise Premium Recovery!
At the same time as Premium Recovery was established a similar Debt collection outfit, Gravis Inkasso was set up in Austria. Gravis has not been subject to the law enforcement activities in Switzerland but it does appear to have ceased all activity related to the scam guides. Indeed at present it appears that the guides of the Ludenbach stable are without a debt collection company, this may not last. Expect the surviving guides get themselves a new company soon, I would predict that any such company will probably appear in a Latin speaking nation such as Spain or Portugal or perhaps South America.
You can see the status of Intercable Verlag here and Premium Recovery Here
Although the page is in German you can see the names of the directors scored out and the Liquidators appointed at the end of the list. Some of the names associated with Intercable are men who have been involved with the scam guide industry for many years, but none of them has been around as long as the company itself. Below is a brief obituary for these 2 companies.
Intercable Verlag was the oldest guide in the group, it can be traced back as far as 30 years to the genesis if the scam guide industry in Hamburg. This liquidation will ring loud in the ears of Mienolf Ludenbach for it was back in Hamburg that he worked for Intercable and quite possibly there that he learned the trade he would in time turn into a global industry.
Years later he would buy the company that had once employed him and would move the base of operations to Switzerland. For many years Intercable continued to use the original method of sending salespeople to target companies these salespeople would dupe persons into signing contracts that they believed related to a free listing. The arrival of many former soviet bloc countries in the EU provided the perfect opportunity for Intercable, trick forms were mailed in huge numbers with wording that made it easy for recipients to confuse them with an offer relating to a Swiss fund to assist companies in the new EU member states. Add to that the fact that the forms were mailed in English and many recipients were bamboozled into signing. The Swiss Government was forced to issue at least one warning about this trick.
Not surprisingly when people were invoiced for their listings in Intercable's near worthless directory they refused to pay. Many banded together to expose the scam. In spite of all this Intercable then went to court to enforce the disputed contracts, not as the contracts stated, under Swiss law but in the counties where their victims lived. As the original contracts had been mailed in English Intercable conveniently provided translations to the courts with all the misleading aspects of the contract layout removed, the outcome was that they won some cases and were able to use these to bludgeon other victims into paying. Whereas most of the guides persuade less than 20% of their victims to actually pay Intercable was getting close to 100%.
After StopECG broke the news of the police raids last month it became a major story in the 2 worst affected nations, (the Czech Republic and Sovakia). On some Czech News bulletins it was the top story of the day! Video 1 Video 2
Alas Intercable has sold the disputed contracts and there have been some new attempts to enforce them; more on this tomorrow.
Premium Recovery was a newcomer, Established to take over the business formerly managed by Ovag international AG it appears that the sole purpose of the Premium Recovery was to terrorise victims of several scam guides into paying. Masquerading as a international Debt Collection agency it employed mainly foreign staff to harass guide victims in their own language. Staff were offered substantial bonuses for bringing in disputed debts and a no-holes-barred culture appeared to exist in how far they could go to intimidate people. As far as we know Premium Recovery never took anyone who refused to pay to court they but almost always threatened legal action, often looking up the names of local courthouses on the Internet and then naming them in letters and faxes.
In the pressure cooker atmosphere of Premiums offices it was not unusual for staff to become threatening and abusive on the phone. Few will rue the demise Premium Recovery!
At the same time as Premium Recovery was established a similar Debt collection outfit, Gravis Inkasso was set up in Austria. Gravis has not been subject to the law enforcement activities in Switzerland but it does appear to have ceased all activity related to the scam guides. Indeed at present it appears that the guides of the Ludenbach stable are without a debt collection company, this may not last. Expect the surviving guides get themselves a new company soon, I would predict that any such company will probably appear in a Latin speaking nation such as Spain or Portugal or perhaps South America.
Labels: Gravis Inkasso, guide scam, intercable Verlag AG, Liquidation, Ovag International, Premium recovery AG
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Big News From Switzerland
For days now I have been getting reliable reports that the police have moved decisively in Switzerland against the Guides and associated companies.
I can confirm that at Novachannel AG, Intercable Verlag AG and Premium Recovery are not trading at this time, that arrests have been made and that at least one senior executive is reported to have evaded arrest and to be on the run.
I must qualify the obvious delight felt by all who have been touched by these companies, because it is not over yet, firstly this will all now go to court where the guide owners are sure to hire the best lawyers money can buy, secondly they have already moved parts of the operation out of Switzerland.
Around the turn of the Year Novachannel passed their med1web operation to United Directories Lda. In Portugal, United immediately set about actively hounding people who had signed Novachannels earlier mailouts, they have been very persistent and are also now mailing their own forms, forms almost identical to those previously sent by Novachannel.
Then on 1st May Intercable Verlag AG transferred disputed contracts to CEA Kft. of Budapest Hungary. CEA has already set about writing to Czech and Slovak victims who have signed Intercable forms in error. I will publish updated advice for people in dispute with the new companies soon.
These new companies are just the latest twist in a complex web of firms straddling the globe but primarily based in Europe. For over 30 years straw men and trustees have fronted holding companies that provided logistics, technical support and infrastructure, parts of individual guide activities have been secretly managed by these companies and while it is near impossible to ascertain the true owners of many of these firms money flows between them with great ease both as payments and loans. Again and again the core perpetrators have evaded justice, to such a point that some of them now feel above the law.
I know that employees of these companies, both current and past will read this blog, so I appeal to those of you reading to seize this opportunity and go to the police! You will have information that is almost certainly no longer in the paper trail. Details you consider minor might aid the case and make it harder for the guide operators to set up afresh. It is not just the current operators, if there is a resounding conviction in this case it will make it harder for people elsewhere in the world to run similar scams.
I will update this article and stopECG with details of how to contact the Lucerne police directly but in the meantime why not take what you know to your local station, even if you think the guides are unconnected.
Update: 2nd July / 6th July: as promised here are the contact details for Swiss Police, you can also pass information to me on stopscamguides@yahoo.co.uk and I will pass it on, as it is unclear who has overall responsibility I have published all relevant addresses.
Lucerne Police
Kantonspolizei Luzern
Kommando
Kasimir-Pfyffer-Strasse 26
Postfach 6002 Luzern
Switzerland
Tel +41 41 248 81 17
Fax +41 41 240 39 01
E-Mail info.kapo(at)lu.ch
Zug Police
Zuger Polizei
An der A
6300 Zug
Tel. 041 728 41 41
Fax 041 728 41 79
info(at)polizei.zg.ch
Ask for investigation officer Mr Daniel Stein
Swiss Courts
Eichwilstrasse 26010
Luzern Switzerland
Tel. +41 318 15 25
Fax +41 318 15 13
I can confirm that at Novachannel AG, Intercable Verlag AG and Premium Recovery are not trading at this time, that arrests have been made and that at least one senior executive is reported to have evaded arrest and to be on the run.
I must qualify the obvious delight felt by all who have been touched by these companies, because it is not over yet, firstly this will all now go to court where the guide owners are sure to hire the best lawyers money can buy, secondly they have already moved parts of the operation out of Switzerland.
Around the turn of the Year Novachannel passed their med1web operation to United Directories Lda. In Portugal, United immediately set about actively hounding people who had signed Novachannels earlier mailouts, they have been very persistent and are also now mailing their own forms, forms almost identical to those previously sent by Novachannel.
Then on 1st May Intercable Verlag AG transferred disputed contracts to CEA Kft. of Budapest Hungary. CEA has already set about writing to Czech and Slovak victims who have signed Intercable forms in error. I will publish updated advice for people in dispute with the new companies soon.
These new companies are just the latest twist in a complex web of firms straddling the globe but primarily based in Europe. For over 30 years straw men and trustees have fronted holding companies that provided logistics, technical support and infrastructure, parts of individual guide activities have been secretly managed by these companies and while it is near impossible to ascertain the true owners of many of these firms money flows between them with great ease both as payments and loans. Again and again the core perpetrators have evaded justice, to such a point that some of them now feel above the law.
I know that employees of these companies, both current and past will read this blog, so I appeal to those of you reading to seize this opportunity and go to the police! You will have information that is almost certainly no longer in the paper trail. Details you consider minor might aid the case and make it harder for the guide operators to set up afresh. It is not just the current operators, if there is a resounding conviction in this case it will make it harder for people elsewhere in the world to run similar scams.
I will update this article and stopECG with details of how to contact the Lucerne police directly but in the meantime why not take what you know to your local station, even if you think the guides are unconnected.
Update: 2nd July / 6th July: as promised here are the contact details for Swiss Police, you can also pass information to me on stopscamguides@yahoo.co.uk and I will pass it on, as it is unclear who has overall responsibility I have published all relevant addresses.
Lucerne Police
Kantonspolizei Luzern
Kommando
Kasimir-Pfyffer-Strasse 26
Postfach 6002 Luzern
Switzerland
Tel +41 41 248 81 17
Fax +41 41 240 39 01
E-Mail info.kapo(at)lu.ch
Zug Police
Zuger Polizei
An der A
6300 Zug
Tel. 041 728 41 41
Fax 041 728 41 79
info(at)polizei.zg.ch
Ask for investigation officer Mr Daniel Stein
Swiss Courts
Eichwilstrasse 26010
Luzern Switzerland
Tel. +41 318 15 25
Fax +41 318 15 13
Labels: CEA Kft, intercable Verlag AG, med1web, Novachannel AG, Police, Premium Recovery, scam, United Directories Lda
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
SECO issues new warning about Intercable Verlag AG
In a very brief message posted to their website (English / French / Italian) on 26th October the Swiss state secretariat (seco) advises companies to beware of forms mailed by intercable Verlag AG
The attached PDF states
The Central European Trade Register advertised by Intercable AG is not in any way associated with the cohesion fund contribution provided by the Swiss Confederation for the ten states that joined the EU on 1 May 2004.
Of the Cohesion fund they say
The form and the website http://www.cetregister.com/ refer to the cohesion fund contribution that Swiss Confederation pledged for projects in the nine new EU member countries for a commitment period of five years (for further information see: http://www.erweiterungsbeitrag.admin.ch/index.html?lang=en). With the enlargement contribution, Switzerland aims to participate in the reduction of the economic and social disparities within the EU.
They go on to warn that signing the Intercable contract involves a commercial liability and that those who sign will not benefit from the Cohesion fund
The Intercable form they refer appears to have been mailed since July 2007.
Intercable Verlag AG has been using forms that result in complaints for decades and is currently under criminal investigation by the Swiss government. It is part of the Ludenbach stable of guides, many of which have been fined, closed or reprimanded for deceptive advertising.
As always with StopECG blog postings we would welcome a response from Intercable Boss Adrian Wittmer.
The attached PDF states
The Central European Trade Register advertised by Intercable AG is not in any way associated with the cohesion fund contribution provided by the Swiss Confederation for the ten states that joined the EU on 1 May 2004.
Of the Cohesion fund they say
The form and the website http://www.cetregister.com/ refer to the cohesion fund contribution that Swiss Confederation pledged for projects in the nine new EU member countries for a commitment period of five years (for further information see: http://www.erweiterungsbeitrag.admin.ch/index.html?lang=en). With the enlargement contribution, Switzerland aims to participate in the reduction of the economic and social disparities within the EU.
They go on to warn that signing the Intercable contract involves a commercial liability and that those who sign will not benefit from the Cohesion fund
The Intercable form they refer appears to have been mailed since July 2007.
Intercable Verlag AG has been using forms that result in complaints for decades and is currently under criminal investigation by the Swiss government. It is part of the Ludenbach stable of guides, many of which have been fined, closed or reprimanded for deceptive advertising.
As always with StopECG blog postings we would welcome a response from Intercable Boss Adrian Wittmer.
Labels: Adrian Wittmer, Cohesion fund, criminal investigation, deceptive, intercable, intercable Verlag AG
